in gazas crowded tent camps women wrestle with a life stripped of privacy

In Gaza's Crowded Tent Camps, Women Wrestle With A Life Stripped Of Privacy

For Gaza's women, the hardships of life in the territory's sprawling tent camps are compounded by the daily humiliation of never having privacy.

Women struggle to dress modestly while crowded into tents with extended family members, including men, and with strangers only steps away in neighboring tents. Access to menstrual products is limited, so they cut up sheets or old clothes to use as pads. Makeshift toilets usually consist of only a hole in the sand surrounded by sheets dangling from a line, and these must be shared with dozens of other people.

Alaa Hamami has dealt with the modesty issue by constantly wearing her prayer shawl, a black cloth that covers her head and upper body.

"Our whole lives have become prayer clothes, even to the market we wear it," said the young mother of three. "Dignity is gone."

Normally, she would wear the shawl only when performing her daily Muslim prayers. But with so many men around, she keeps it on all the time, even when sleeping - just in case an Israeli strike hits nearby in the night and she has to flee quickly, she said.